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Do You Use Nofollow For Internal Links in Your Website?

This article is about analyzing the usage of nofollow attribute while dealing with internal pages on a website. We can still see websites using this attribute for their internal links. I even see supporters of using it for internal linking. Personally I do not like the idea of adding rel="nofollow" to them. While discussing in webmaster forums, supporters of using nofollow attribute while pointing internal pages argue there is no need to pass PR juice to less important pages like contact us page, FAQ etc. So to avoid passing PR juice to the less important pages they add this attribute whenever pointing to those pages. Let us check how much truth in their arguments who support the usage of rel="nofollow" to internal webpages.

Concept of Page Rank Sculpting

When I started doing SEO for my websites, the concept of Page Rank sculpting was ruling. According to Page Rank Sculpting, we can channel the PR juice of one webpage to certain links on that page including internal and external links. In those days, Google was treating nofollow attribute as a barrier which stops the flow of PR juice through a link. By using this facility, webmasters prevented the flow of PR juice to unwanted pages and channel all the PR value to important pages.

Let us consider a webpage having 10 links (both internal and external). Each of them passes 1/10 of the total PR juice. According to PR Sculpting if we add nofollow to 5 links, PR flow through them are blocked. No more link juice passing through them with this attribute. Only 5 other links without nofollow tag passes the total Page Rank juice from the webpage. The PR juice passing through each one is now reduced to 1/5.

PR Flow through a link = 1/(Number of Links without nofollow attribute)

See, by Page Rank sculpting we can decide how much value passes through a link. But those days are over. Now the concept of Page Rank Sculpting no longer works. Google realized the misuse of nofollow attribute and they have changed the way Page trust flows between pages. Now irrespective of this attribute, link juice passing though links from on webpage follows the following equation.

PR juice passing through one link =1/(total number of links on the web page )

Now we can see even if we add nofollow to certain links on a web page, it does not affect the amount of PR juice passing through each one on the web page. So I recommend my fellow webmasters to do not use nofollow to internal pages for passing more link juice through certain links on that page. It does not work any more. The best SEO internal linking strategy is to avoid adding nofollow attribute while pointing internal pages.

Internal links have a vital role in total Search Engine rank of your website. The free flow of Page Rank through out your website helps internal pages to rank higher in Search Engine results. You can see some internal pages as backlinks while checking backlinks in Google or Bing. To learn more about it click on the link below.How to Check Backlinks To Your Website In Google and Bing

If you are a blogger, you know the importance of having a custom domain name for your blog. It can help you to promote your blog among your audience and in Social Media. Unique domain name helps backlink building process too. To learn about adding custom domain follow the instructions provided in the link below.Benefits and Steps to Set Up Custom Domain Name For blogger Blog